The Trump administration is considering selling two-thirds of the federal government’s office stock to the private sector, and approximately three-quarters of the 70 million square feet of office space the GSA leases from private landlords in D.C. is also likely to be canceled.
Hedge-Fund Performance
The top 20 hedge-fund managers oversee about 20% of industry assets but are responsible for an estimated 32% of industrywide net gains.
Fed’s Outlook
Meeting minutes from the Fed’s December policy meeting showed officials bracing for the possibility that the coming administration could usher in another spell of higher-than-expected inflation.
Housing Prices
The stock market is pricing portfolios of American homes at a hefty discount to what houses are changing hands for in the open market. Shares of publicly traded single-family landlords are trading at 35% and 20% discounts to their net asset values.
CBRE Industrious
CBRE announced Tuesday that it has agreed to purchase the 60% stake that it didn’t already own in Industrious, a deal that values the co-working company at about $800 million. Industrious has more than 200 locations in over 65 cities globally that make office space available to businesses on flexible terms.
Job Gains
Job gains averaged 186,000 a month in 2024. But 76% of the job growth in the past year has been in healthcare and education, leisure and hospitality, and government. In fields such as finance, information, and professional and business services, job growth has been far weaker.
Retail Recovery
Retail availability has fallen to record-low levels since the pandemic, thanks in part to a dearth in new store construction. Rent prices are climbing in many places.
Multifamily Vacancy
The national vacancy rate for multifamily apartments reached 8% in the last quarter of 2024—higher than it was before the pandemic. Led by four and five star units over 11%, three star units above 7%, with one and two star units just over 5% vacant.
BX Citrin
A Blackstone-led group will take more than two-thirds ownership stake in Citrin Cooperman, and Blackstone itself will hold an interest of 40% to 45% in the firm. The deal values Citrin Cooperman at more than $2 billion.
Home Mortgage Spread
The spread between current coupon benchmark mortgage bonds and the yield of relevant Treasurys is currently between 1.3 to 1.4 percentage points. That gap has been unusually wide for a few years now, well above the sub-1 point gap seen back in 2019.